Portable computing devices, such as smartphones or tablet computers, have become increasingly powerful and user-friendly. Increased network connectivity has further enhanced portable computing device functionality, allowing portable computing devices to provide a wider range of functionalities and/or data. For example, portable computing devices are commonly used to retrieve, or otherwise interact with, data stored or maintained by a server, allowing a user to more frequently view, modify or otherwise interact with data on the server.
To readily provide access to data maintained by a server, a portable computing device frequently exchanges data with the server to synchronize data stored on the portable computing device and data stored on the server. Different data synchronization settings may be used by the portable computing device to exchange data with a server. For example, the portable computing device may poll the server at a regular polling interval to transmit data to the server or retrieve data from the server. Alternatively, data may be pushed from the portable computing device to a server, or from a server to the portable computing device, at a periodic interval.
However, each exchange of data between a portable computing device and a server consumes battery resources and processing resources, reducing portable computing device performance. Additionally, a data plan provided by a network provider often limits the amount of data exchanged between the portable computing device and one or more servers. Typically, a data plan specifies data quota identifying an amount that may be exchanged between a portable computing device and one or more servers over a specified interval. Often, an amount of data exceeding the data quota may be exchanged between the portable computing device and a server if a portable computing device user pays an additional fee to the network provider based on the amount of excess data exchanged. For example, a data plan allows a portable computing device to transmit and receive 10 megabytes of data per month between a portable computing device and one or more servers. However, exchanging data between the portable computing device and one or more servers may consume all, or a significant amount, of the portable computing device user's data quota. This may result in the portable computing device user incurring additional charges for exceed the user's data quota.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the Figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the Figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing the specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.